Improved bayonet-blank



H. WATERS.

Bayonet Blank. Q

- No. 43,247. a Patented June 21,1864.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERVEY WATERS, OF NOBTHBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVED BAYON ET-BLAN K.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 43,247, dated June 21, 1864.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, -HERVEY WATERS, of Northbridge, county of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Manufacture of a Bayonet-Blank; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

To produce bayonets of much greater accu racy in the forged state, whereby great saving of labor and material is obtained, and at the same time to have the material in much bet ter condition to receive the requisite temper, are the objects of my invention.

Prior to my invention the blade was always formed first, as far as I know, and afterward the shank, not much regard to accuracy being necessary, because the entire surface of the blade was afterward milled away to get the necessary perfection of figure and size, using some sixteen ounces or more of steel to form the blade and shank, both of which when in the finished state weighing about ten ounces only. Now, this necessity of milling made it necessary to anneal the steel to such degree as always to injure it, as to its capacity to take the proper temper and frequently to quite ruin it.

By my invention I have succeeded in formin g bayonet-blades with the shank, with so much accuracy as to produce good bayonets from eleven ounces of steel, eleven and ahalf being a plenty,but as they cannot be cut from the bar with entire accuracy, it has been usual with me to have the rule twelve ounces, and when the variation is so small as 110i] to get elow eleven ounces, the quantity is suflicient. If the steel is in excess of the requisite quantity, the surplus is thrown out at and beyond the point of the blade and cut-off. About onequarterof a million of blades have been thus produced by me, mostly for the United States Armory at Springfield, in a little more than twelve months last past, from which better bayonetshave been produced than ever before.

My invention consists in a new article of manufacture from which bayonets can be rolled or swaged, the same being a metal bar containing the requisite quantity of material, oraslightexcess, needed for the bayonet-blade and shank formation and having the shank end fashioned, by swaging or otherwise without removal of material, into a given shape, which in a given length contains the definite amount of material, needed for the formation of the shank part of the bayonet. This shape I prefer should be one of direct utility in the bayonet-shank formation-that is, one which, at least in part, is of the length and cross-sections required in the finished bayonet. There being the requisite amount of material in the blank as cut from the bar from which to form the bayonet, and there being from. a given point in the shape formed at one end of the blank the exact quantity of metal called for in the shank, it follows that there is just enough material in the blank beyond said point for the formation of the blade, and if the rolling or swaging operation is properly conducted with reference to said point or any given point or part of said shape, all parts of the blade and shank will have proper relation to each other without recourse to removal of any considerable material from any part of the bayonet shank or blade. My invention is shown embodied in Figure l, and Fig. 2 shows the blade of the bayonet as produced by rolling with the shank as yet unbent and without the socket by which the weapon is secured to the gun-barrel.

Some novel modes of operation with new mechanism, by which the described bayonetblank is reduced to a bayonet blade, will be set forth hereafter in applications for patents which will be made by me as soon as practicable.

I claim- .As a new article of manufacture, a bayonetblank having the disposition of its material substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 30th day of April, A l). 1864.

HERVEY WATERS. In presence of J. B. GRosBY, S. B. KIDDER. 

